Florida Springs Dive
Crystal clear waters, constant temperature year-round, lots of aquatic life. That’s what we always hear about Florida spring diving. So, I decided it was time to see what the springs were all about. So… starting out from the St. Augustine area we heard about Alexander Springs from two different dive shops: White sand bottoms, great visibility, lots of life – maybe even a small alligator, very shallow and easy.
So we set our GPS and off we went. As it turns out, the drive was the best part. Yes, I said drive, not dive. Our favorite navigator app decided to avoid I-95 and take us via State Routes instead. These were two lane highways running 55-65 MPH surrounded by lush green vegetation, some farms, the occasional road side shack, some incredible homes and properties, an ostrich farm, lots of cows, and some interesting small town shops that looked like fun to explore. But, did we stop? No! We were on our way to dive!
♦ Alexander Springs ♦
We finally made it to Alexander Springs. The entrance was a small driveway off CR-445. When we entered, we presented our c-cards at the gate where we were charged double what we were told ($6.50/diver vice $6.50/car). Okay, not a big deal. Then we headed toward the spring. We got there to find out we couldn’t pull up near the water as we were told (Hmmmm… are you seeing a pattern forming here). Instead we geared up in a parking lot and had to hoof it about .1 mile to the water. Again, not a big deal, just more mis-information. Once at the waters edge, I started to suspect we drove all this way for nothing. “Nah,” I thought, “No way two dive shops could be so wrong.” We saw a small lake and at the far right saw a TINY blue hole!
We walked down the five cement stairs into the ankle deep crystal clear water, checked our gear one last time, donned our fins and masks, walked backwards until we were chest deep then did a surface swim for about 20 yards until we reached the edge of the blue hole. This is when I realized we made a beautiful drive to dive a deep swimming pool! I mean, this hole was literally no larger in length and width than the pool at the condo we were staying at. Well, we were there and we were going to dive. BTW… on the way out my daughter practiced with her dive tables and informed me we could stay down for 205 minutes before reaching our no decompression limit. I was looking around and wondering if it would hold our interest for even 20 minutes.
Does that look say, “My ear hurts” or “I already saw that fish.”
I let my daughter lead the descent and we slowly settled down and in. As we swam over the vent holes, you could see the plant life and sand moving from the force, we saw about 10 fish, no gator, some algae, and were harassed by snorkelers. I snapped a few pics that might be fun to edit and then, umm, realized there was nothing left to do or see.
My daughter was having a little ear trouble from the shallow ups and downs (every time she went near a vent, she’d be pushed up a few feet and would have to descend again) so we decided to end the dive. She was extremely disappointed with her ears and I was disappointed that I revved her up to see…. nothing!
♦
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Even the fish seemed bored
So…. all you Florida spring divers, please respond to this blog and tell me which
springs are worth diving – and, um, if you’ve never dived a beautiful ocean reef, teaming
with life, thereby giving you a point of comparison, don’t bother responding.
